World: Close to the Earth

The ground under the Red troops punching into central Poland and the
Baltic littoral was no longer Russian ground; the air was no longer
Russian air. But it was Russian-dominated air. The Red Air Force finally
commanded it, almost as decisively as the troops below its airmen
dominated the terrain.

At a forward observation post in the south, where the stench of high
explosives and of the dead defiled the delicate scent of apple blossoms,
leathery, bullet-headed Marshal Ivan Konev last week briefed his
commanders. He spoke of the new power of...